For many of us, the R4 chip is certainly not old news.  What we may not have realized is how much of an impact this tiny chip, just a few centimeters long and several millimeters thick, is having on Nintendo. 

The R4 (Revolution for DS) is essentially a storage device for the Nintendo DS, and though the device itself is not illegal, what people wind up using it for is.  Available for $40 to $50 USD (roughly), it is an easy way for gamers to download countless illegally cracked game titles as well as other material.

In the Akihabara electronics district of Tokyo, the R4 just recently went on sale and is one of the most sought after gifts for Christmas.  Stores openly advertise for the chip but retain a certain level of ambiguity about the whole thing, with signs reading, “New R4 shipment has finally arrived! You know what it does! Absolutely no questions will be answered concerning this product...” or "Guaranteed for one week only! Of course we can’t explain what the R4 will do..."

DS games often become available for download on the internet just days before the official versions are released.

With 35 millions DS users around the world, the R4 can potentially deal a heavy blow to Japan's third most valuable listed company.  A Nintendo spokesperson has said, “We are keeping a close eye on the products and studying them. But we cannot smash all of them."